My TeachForIndia Classroom

Professional Experience

Since June 2017, Pune, IndiaTarana Wireless is an American startup engaged in developing 5G wireless technology that is robust and immune to obstructions, interference, motion, and unskilled installers. I am responsible for the development and integration of software components for Linux OS running on the Microprocessor inside the nodes.

As the technical director, I was made responsible for setting up the processes for just about everything involved in running the company smoothly. We worked on two different brand of Products - VibeScope and Ergoptix.

VibeScope was a foray into Industrial IoT domain. With the help of team of 5 members, we designed and developed a device to tap 24V logic signals from the PLC inside a group of 15 Injection Moulding Machines and uploaded them to an IoT broker. Analytics were run periodically on the accumulated data to determine various parameters like cycle and injection times. The node device ran OpenWrt and had a custom design PCB analog frontend to capture the signals. The software on the node device was written in C and Bash. An android app to display the graphs in real time was also created.

Ergoptix is a 3 year old entity manufacturing dental equipment involving optics and electronics. To grow the businesses I had to create a strong web presence, design and implement businesses processes, assemble sales and backend teams, design and execute sales strategy and develop a smooth CRM/Customer Support flow.For the web presence I developed a responsive website (with an optimized mobile web version) and integrated with it a shopping cart, payment gateway and the CRM systems.

As a fellow, my efforts were focussed towards bringing TFI’s vision to reality - “One day all children will attain an excellent education”. Serving as class teacher of 7th grade classroom of 48 students (and subject teacher of 80 more), I worked towards closing the achievement gap, inculcating positive mindsets and values and bringing access and exposure into my classroom. As a leader, I strove to push these individuals to become highly aware proactive citizens capable of high achievement. As a side project, I conducted after school classes to teach kids physical computing and computer programming. Within Teach For India, I am known for my innovative use of technology to enhance teaching, my major contribution being the prototyping of various community computers documented here: www.anuragchugh.com/community-computers

While at Teach For India, I spent my Sundays building IoT devices using Embedded Linux: Weather Station, Security Camera with Android Push, Twitter lamp, Automatic Router Rebooter and Remote Electricity Energy Meter. All these project have been well documented on my website: www.anuragchugh.com/iot

As a senior software engineer, I was responsible for development of one of the modules of power line communications protocol stack intended for use in embedded devices. The protocol stack was intended to be used with the HomePlug Green PHY ASIC that our company was developing. My task was specifically to code the TCP module for use with IPv6 over HomePlug Green PHY. The whole stack including TCP was created as a lightweight tightly coupled linux kernel module. Userspace program to communicate with the kernel module was also developed. Later on, I ported some parts of those modules to TI’s Cortex M4 microcontroller.

Another task that I carried to completion was porting of FreeRTOS to AT91SAM7X256 + Keil ARM-MDK platform. This involved coding in Embedded C and a bit in Assembly language. AT91SAM7X256 is an ARM7TDMI microcontroller from Atmel. FreeRTOS port for this microcontroller was available for GCC but not for MDK-ARM.

_________________________________

Tata Consultancy Services (www.tcs.com)I.T. Analyst
December 2010 to February 2012, Pune, India
As an I.T. Analyst, I was responsible for delivering embedded solutions to our Automotive clients. Some of the projects that I have worked on include:

Multiple models of the product were supported by our team - some with 6” touchpanel LCD and others with a 7” one, some with the navigation module and others without. A single code base was used for all the devices with specific parts of the code selectively hidden using preprocessor directives.

The main system controller was one from the M16C-60 family. The code for this 16-bit microcontroller was written in C. µITRON based RTOS was used on this microcontroller.

Other processors in the system included - An another M16C-60 microcontroller to augment the main system controller, a graphics processor, a multi channel video decoder, a DVD video processor, Bluetooth module and a navigation module.

Carried out a continuous improvement project which led to an annual saving of 17 person days for the validation activities.

Used advanced functions available within Microsoft Excel to generate normal curves, histograms, process sigma calculations and to carry out normality tests on the measured data.

Presented the findings using Microsoft Powerpoint.

Attended Web Based Training on Six Sigma.

_________________________________

Laboratory for Applied Research in Electronics (www.lare.in)Head of Research Center
February 2008 to November 2010, Mumbai, India
As the head of the Research Center, I was responsible for
conceptualizing, designing, developing and debugging embedded systems
for various applications ranging from educational kits to development
tools to industrial systems. Being one of the
founder members of LARE, I played a crucial role in its formation. The day to
day activities of LARE included (besides the usual technical work) policy making, maintaining accounts,
interacting with the clients and promotion at exhibitions. Allotting my time towards these activities right from
LARE’s inception, helped build my entrepreneurship skills. The various projects I worked on while at LARE are:

Chromatography Sample Application Machine- This was a automated cartesian robotic platform for application of organic solution to planar surface (such as chromatography paper) for quantitative and qualitative analysis. The platform had two stepper motors and an electrically actuated spray-on nozzle. An 8-bit microcontroller - P89V51RD2 was used to control the motion of the motors and the actuator. The microcontroller received commands from a Visual Basic 6 application via RS-232. Coding was done in Embedded C.

NMEA 0183 Translator for propeller shaft encoder - This small circuit sporting an 8-bit microcontroller counted pulses from a shaft encoder connected to a ship's propeller and reported the RPM by transmitting NMEA sentences out its UART. The device was used for system integration while retrofitting of Indian Naval Services ships with newer navigation equipment. Coding was done in Embedded C.

Modbus to NMEA0183 Translator for Energy Meter - This project involved the creation of a small embedded device capable of querying registers of a commercial off the shelf Modbus compatible three phase energy meter and reporting the measurements using NMEA 0183 sentences to an upstream device. This project was done for the Indian Navy Service. The controller used was Atmega8. Coding was done in Embedded C.

RS485/Wireless compatible RGB power LED driver/controller - A mood lighting controller using ballast was designed using P89V51RD2 as the main microcontroller. The intensity of each colour of the light could be finely controlled using a computer. Many of these controllers could be connected to a common RS485 bus and all of them could be controlled using a single computer. The device could alternatively be controlled using wireless RF remote controls.

UNIBlocks are modular electronic blocks designed for rapid prototyping for academic and professional use. UNIBlocks consist of various standard circuits in module form (like electronic equivalent of Lego® elements) which can be connected together to form any kind of embedded system. The UNIBlocks Systems Consists of more than 60 different modules. Out of these 60 around 35 were custom designed PCBs.

All aspects of development of these 35 different modules (PCBs) were carried out singlehandedly by me. All design phases for each module were carried out by myself alone - conceptualizing, component identification, schematic entry, PCB layout, gerber generation, testing and iteration. This project exposed me to more than 1200 hrs of PCB Layout work using Eagle Layout Editor.

The UNIBlock System has proven to be a boon for undergrad engineering students as well as professional developers.

This project was carried on the same lines as UNIBlocks Knowledge Base. It involved the setup, customization and creation of a Drupal based website for hosting support information for UC Micro Systems Products. The URL is http://pc.lare.in.

It is a software development kit for the venerable 8051 microcontroller featuring advanced peripherals like colour graphics LCD and FM Radio besides the standard ones like LEDs, 7 Segment Displays, Matrix Keypad, RS232, I2C ICs and Stepper Motor.

The PCB for UNI-51-SDKmkII was designed in Mentor Graphics PADS.

This development kit is intended for use by advanced developers wanting to write test code and prove their concepts for any new embedded project based on 8051 microcontroller.

_________________________________

Larsen & Toubro EmSyS (now L & T IES)(www.lntemsys.com)Systems Engineer
July 2006 to January 2008, Mumbai, IndiaAs a Systems Engineer, I have been
responsible for delivering embedded solutions to our Industrial clients.
Some of the projects that I have worked on include:

HART is a protocol used in field instrumentation. It offers a digital upgrade by retrofitting analog 4-20mA current loops. The HART Communication Foundation is the standards setting body for HART Communications Protocol.

The protocol stack was developed using Embedded C.

The microcontroller targets included three families: 8051, AVR & MSP430.

Compiler switches were used to selectively compiler object code from the same set of source files depending on the compiler and target.

The compilers used were: sdcc, avr-gcc and msp-gcc (All are distributed under GNU Public License)

Familiarizing self and team members with the various aspects of AUTOSAR methodology which needs to be followed while developing software for the latest generation of automotive Electronic Control Units. AUTOSAR describes the seamless networking of ECUs using FlexRay, CAN and LIN Protocols.

A course module was prepared and delivered to the team. The course, material included presentation slides and handouts.

The main objective of this project is to come out with a common cost effective platform for all types of fuel dispensers.

It
adopts a modular architecture design wherein a central microcontroller
Freescale's MC9S12XDP512 (which runs the business logic) communicates
with individual intelligent modules on Controller Area Network.
Any new hardware feature can be added into the system by plugging it
into the CAN bus system making the system upgradeable from the low end
dispensers like MONO and DUO to the high end ones with features like
Touch screen & TFT graphics display, Internet connectivity, Remote
monitoring, Audio messaging, Data transfer over EDGE, etc.

Consultant for peer projects / Technical Support for marketing team Team Size (incl. me): 1
Duration: 2 months
Task Profile: Research and Advice, Propose System Architecture

Served as an internal consultant for advising peers on various projects running in parallel. These included: A BLDC Motor Controller, a USB interface to communicate with a BLDC Motor Controller and retrofitting of a HART capable Flow Sensor to support ModBus. In all these cases, my inputs were deemed valuable and accepted without any modifications.

Served as advisor to the marketing team to provide them with technical support required for marketing.